****The Wedding

by Nicholas Sparks

I had stopped reading Nicholas Sparks’ books in recent years. I
loved his first book, The Notebook, but in later books I
started to feel like he was simply trying to manipulate my emotions,
always putting in the most emotional situations possible.

When I saw that his latest book was a sequel to The Notebook, I
couldn’t resist being the first person to check it out (before people
know we have it). It was wonderful.

After he completely forgets their 29th wedding anniversary, Wilson
realizes that his wife Jane no longer loves him like she did
before. He spends the next year trying to win back her love,
culminating in a special
two weeks around their 30th wedding anniversary.

Then, a week before the anniversary, their daughter tells them she
wants to get married that day. At first, she only wanted a simple
wedding, but Jane convinces her to have something special, since Jane
and
Wilson were only married in front of a Justice of the Peace. They
spend the next week frantically planning the wedding.

The author takes us through the week of preparations, interweaving the
stories of how Wilson and Jane met and fell in love. Wilson also
spends time with Noah, Jane’s elderly father, who was the hero of The
Notebook and is wise in the ways of romance.

This is a beautiful, warm and wonderful book. It walks close to
the line of being overly sentimental, but for me it didn’t cross
it. It’s a lovely story of someone working to make his marriage
last out the years despite mistakes he’s made in the past.